Rummy games typically include creating and melding SETs of three or more cards of the same card number but of any of multiple card suits, or RUNs of three or more sequentially-numbered cards of the same suit. Many rummy games incorporating different types of play and a large variety of rules have been developed over a substantial period. It is known, for example, to deal three cards to each of two or more players and require the first player to draw cards one at a time from a face-down draw pile until that player can meld onto a table or other playing surface either a SET, a RUN or both, each consisting of at least three cards. The next-following player must then either add at least one card to an exposed melded SET or RUN or must draw cards from the deck until he can lay down at least one card on an existing SET or RUN or establish a new SET or RUN. Similar play continues until one player has disposed of all cards in his or her hand, ending the game, typically referred to as “going out”.
It is also known in a rummy tile game to utilize wild tiles in place of missing numbered tiles when melding a RUN or SET. Any player can then extract the wild tile by substituting the appropriate numbered tile for the missing tile that the wild tile represents. The extracted wild tile can then be added by that player to any existing RUN or SET on the table or be used with tiles from his hand or from the table to create a new RUN or SET, by having the wild tile now represent another different-numbered tile. In another aspect of the above game, tiles may be rearranged to make up new SETs or RUNs, with the exception that a SET or RUN containing a wild tile cannot be broken until the wild tile has first been extracted by substituting the numbered tile that it represents. This simply means that a RUN containing four or more tiles at least one of which is wild cannot have a numbered tile removed nor can it be rearranged into separate RUNs, although it can have tiles added to at either end, if not yet complete. Such unbreakable RUN or SET requires replacement of all wild tiles therefrom before tile removal or rearrangement is permitted. All of the known rummy games that employ wild cards or tiles require, to the best of our knowledge, use of a double deck of cards or double group of tiles.